Tag: study

Vets Believe That Some Pet Owners Injure Their Animals To Get Opioids

A new study reveals that 13% of veterinarians believed a client had intentionally injured a pet or made them ill in order to be prescribed a drug.

A small research study in Colorado had disturbing results: the study found that 13% of veterinarians believe that people are using their pets to obtain opioids—by making them appear to be injured, or by actually injuring the animal.

Gizmodo interviewed the author of the study, Liliana Tenney, a public health researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Tenney is concerned about the lack of training and education for veterinarians regarding their responsibilities in the opioid crisis.

“In conversations with these doctors, they often ask: ‘Well, what do we do? We need to treat pets who are in pain but we also need to know how to identify and handle suspicious behavior,’” she said. “But there’s not a lot of resources or training right now to direct these veterinarians.”

According to Gizmodo, almost three-quarters of vets reported that their veterinary medical school training on opioids was mediocre, poor, or non-existent. Sixty-four percent said that following veterinarian school, they had no further training on the issue.

Newsweek reported that in the survey of 189 vets; 13% reported that they believed a client had intentionally injured a pet, made them ill, or made them appear unwell, in order to be prescribed a drug. Tramadol is the most common opioid stocked by veterinary practices.

The emailed survey also revealed that 45% of the vets knew of someone at work or a client who was abusing opioids, and 12% said they knew of a staff member that was giving out opioids.

Lee Newman, director of the Center for Health, Work & Environment at the Colorado School of Public Health, told Newsweek, “There were also reports of diversion of drugs within the veterinary practices. Doctors [of animals] can prescribe the full range of opioids that are prescribed and administered to humans.

“In fact, veterinarians have the ability to prescribe, administer, carry, stock, and dispense narcotics in clinics, depending on the pain needs of their animal patients.”

The survey results indicate that veterinarians have been dramatically undereducated about their role in drug monitoring. Sixty-two percent believed they had a role in preventing opioid abuse, and 40% were unsure if opioid abuse was an issue in their communities.

To address this gap, Liliana Tenney, along with her team, has built an online education course for veterinary providers. Tenney and others are also working on building a better surveillance program within Colorado, where the survey was conducted.

View the original article at thefix.com

15 August 2018
Opioid Use Quadrupled Among Pregnant Women

The prevalence of opioid use disorder present at a hospital delivery rose from 1.5 per 1,000 deliveries in 1999 to 6.5 per 1,000 in 2014.

Opioid use among pregnant women quadrupled between 1999 and 2014, rising alongside the rate at which opioid use disorder has increased in the general population, according to a new report.

“When something is so broad and affects all populations, we also see it reflected in the pregnant population,” Dr. Elizabeth E. Krans, an assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, told CNN Health.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published its report on Friday (August 10). The CDC analysis found that nationally, the prevalence of opioid use disorder present at a hospital delivery rose from 1.5 per 1,000 deliveries in 1999 to 6.5 per 1,000 in 2014.

However, in some states the problem was much more prevalent. In Vermont, for example, opioids are a factor in 48.6 out of every 1,000 deliveries.

Data was only available in 28 states, but indicated that opioid use in pregnant populations varies widely. Washington, D.C. had the lowest prevalence in 2014 at just 0.7 deliveries per 1,000, while Vermont had the highest.

The increase in the prevalence of opioids was also uneven: California and Hawaii saw relatively small increases, while Maine, New Mexico, Vermont and West Virginia saw large spikes in the reported use of opioids among pregnant women.

State policies on drug use during pregnancy can affect reporting, since in 23 states and Washington, D.C., using drugs while pregnant is considered child abuse. This might prevent some women from being honest about their drug use.

“Data on the impact of these policies are scarce,” the authors wrote.

“Pregnancy is a really important time. Women are often worried that invested in their own health and the health of their baby, but they’re also fearful of judgment,” Krans said.

Women who are using opioids when they become pregnant are often told to go on medication-assisted treatment throughout their pregnancies, as that is the safest option for mother and baby. “We have effective treatments that are available during pregnancy, and we want to encourage women to seek early care and engage in treatment as soon as possible,” Krans said.

Left untreated, opioid use can lead to a variety of pregnancy complications and negative health effects for the child.

“Opioid use by pregnant women represents a significant public health concern given the association of opioid exposure and adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes, including preterm labor, stillbirth, neonatal abstinence syndrome, and maternal mortality,” the authors wrote.

View the original article at thefix.com

15 August 2018
How Alcoholism Can Affect Communication Even After Sobriety

The voices of people with alcoholism were perceived as “less expressive,” “rougher,” and “more flat” in a new study.

It’s no secret that alcoholism and other substance use disorders can take a huge toll on communication. People who are addicted have the reputation of being unreliable, forgetful or unorganized in their communication.

However, a new study suggests that alcoholism may physically change a person’s ability to communicate via speech, and that those changes last even after a person gets sober.

A new study, published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, found that people who were alcoholics have trouble using pitch to communicate the emotion behind their statements.

For the study, people in recovery were recorded saying a sentence, as were people in a control group who did not have a history of alcoholism. The recordings were then played for a group of volunteers. The listeners had more trouble distinguishing the intended emotion in the recordings by people with alcoholism.

In addition, the voices of people with alcoholism were perceived as “less expressive,” “rougher,” and “more flat.”

This can lead to trouble communicating, since the same words can have vastly different meanings depending on the tone and pitch that they are spoken with.

“These results suggest that emotional communication difficulties can persist long after alcoholics have quit drinking,” the study authors wrote.

In speaking with Healthline, Silke Paulmann, a cognitive sciences professor at the University of Essex and leader of the study, said that there is a physical reason for at least some of the communication difficulties that many people with alcoholism and their loved ones experience.

“Our data clearly indicate that they can modulate pitch, but do so less effectively,” she said to Healthline.

The study did not examine why the changes occur, but Paulmann said that it is likely due to changes either in the vocal chords or in the brain caused by alcoholism. The right side of the brain controls pitch and can be damaged by drinking too much alcohol.

“Heavy drinking has been linked to brain atrophy in the right hemisphere,” she said to Healthline. “We don’t have scans of our participants, but if their brain has been affected by their drinking history, this may explain the differences as well.”

Speech therapy could potentially help people with alcoholism who are in recovery overcome this communication issue. However, Paulmann said that just being aware of the issue, and talking about it with friends and family, can also make a big difference.

“On the receiver’s end, some of the communication problems in families might be less severe if the parties involved understand that it is not indifference that leads to ‘less expressive’ reactions,” she told Healthline.

View the original article at thefix.com

14 August 2018
Treating Teens’ Depression Can Benefit Parents Too

A new study explores how a family member receiving mental health treatment impacts their loved ones.

Depression touches not only the individual—often, it affects the community around them, too.

For teens, parents are often a significant part of this “community,” and can experience depression second-hand. But when a teen receives treatment, the benefits will ripple through the whole family, according to preliminary research presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association on Saturday (August 11).

The study of 325 American teens and their parents—which has yet to be peer-reviewed and published—analyzed data from a larger 2007 study of how teens living with depression responded to antidepressant drug treatment or cognitive behavioral therapy.

The team observed that regardless of which kind of mental health treatment the teens received, the psychological health of the parents improved as well.

It’s easy to guess why this would happen. The official symptoms of depression include irritability, a lack of energy, anxiety, and loss of interest in normal activities. It’s not hard to see how any one of these symptoms could negatively affect the people around the depressed individual.

“It’s possible that the feedback, the control, and the involvement in the treatment may have been beneficial,” said Kelsey Howard, co-author of the research and a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University. “It could be in how the family is interacting with each other: The kid is more pleasant to be around, the kid is making less negative statements, which can affect how other family members think.”

As one writer noted in Psychology Today, “[Families] contribute powerfully to the emotional atmosphere the depressed person inhabits, and so can be agents of recovery.”

Some treatment professionals say the family’s input is necessary to correctly diagnose depression.

S. Nassir Ghaemi, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard University, says he’ll ask patients seeking an evaluation to bring in a family member. “Then I ask the family to feel free to call me any time the patient is developing mood symptoms of any variety,” he told Psychology Today.

Ghaemi also uses the family to keep the patient on track with medication, if necessary. With the support of family members, the patient can stay on track of taking his or her medication. And if the family is not on board with the treatment plan, Ghaemi teaches patients how to navigate this challenge.

View the original article at thefix.com

14 August 2018
Can Exercise Prevent Cocaine Relapse?

Researchers used animals to model the effects of exercise on addictive behaviors for a new study.

According to researchers, the possibility of a cocaine relapse can be reduced with exercise.

The discovery comes thanks to research at the University of Buffalo led by Panyotis Thanos.

“Cocaine addiction is often characterized by cycles of recovery and relapse, with stress and negative emotions, often caused by withdrawal itself, among the major causes of relapse,” said senior scientist Thanos.

In the study, Thanos and his team used animals to model the effects of exercise on addictive behaviors.

To this end, he and his team observed that test subjects who did regular aerobic exercise (one hour on a treadmill five times a week) were less likely to exhibit “stress-induced cocaine-seeking behaviors.” Not only were they more likely to be drug-free, they also changed the way they responded to stress, both behaviorally and physiologically.

Cocaine addiction causes these behavioral and physiological shifts in response to stress. Thanos’ research found that physical exercise can change the mesolimbic dopamine pathways in the brain. These pathways are the same ones that cocaine acts on, creating the rewarding feeling that makes cocaine so addictive.

Exercise can also help boost mood and cut down on the hormones responsible for stress, which could keep those mental formations that tempt relapse at bay.

There are also the other known benefits to aerobic exercise, including the prevention of heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis, that make regular aerobic exercise worthwhile.

“Our results suggest that regular aerobic exercise could be a useful strategy for relapse prevention, as part of a comprehensive treatment program for recovering cocaine abusers,” explained Thanos. “Further research is necessary to see if these results also hold true for other addictive drugs.”

The use of exercise has helped at least one person: country superstar Tim McGraw. He previously used alcohol to help with pre-show jitters, but in his recovery, replaced that with a long run instead.

“The ritual now is to run,” McGraw explained. “Me and a few of the guys in the band—I do my meet and greet and right after the meet and greet, we take off and run for 4 or 5 miles. It is literally timed so I run straight into the dressing room, get ready and hit the stage.”

View the original article at thefix.com

14 August 2018
Long-Term Opioid Use Linked To Wisdom Teeth Extraction

Researchers examined whether opioids prescribed to manage pain from wisdom teeth extraction heightened the risk of long-term use.

Nearly 85% of people will need to have their wisdom teeth extracted at some point during their lives, and a new study shows that this routine dental procedure can have severe consequences—with young people who use opioids after the procedure three times more likely to fill opioid prescriptions long-term.

“From our findings, we should strongly consider not prescribing any opioids routinely after wisdom teeth are pulled. Particularly since there is evidence that anti-inflammatories may be just as good, if not better, for pain management after wisdom teeth are pulled,” Dr. Calista Harbaugh, lead study author and a general surgery resident at the University of Michigan, where the research was conducted, told ABC News.

For the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on August 7, researchers looked at 71,000 insured people from 2009 to 2015.

About 60,000 filled prescriptions for opioids intended to relieve the pain from the tooth extraction. Researchers then looked at future opioid use and found that young people were most likely to fill additional opioid prescriptions in the future.

This is not the first time that researchers have connected dental work with risk for long-term use of opioids. Last summer, another study published in JAMA warned that doctors and dentists should be weighing opioid dependence as a potential complication from surgery.

“New persistent opioid use represents but previously underappreciated surgical complication that warrants increased awareness,” they wrote.

Harbaugh said wisdom tooth extraction is especially risky because it comes at a time when people may be more likely to become addicted, and it is a very common procedure, with more than 3.5 million extractions taking place each year.

“Teens and young adults are an important population to understand the effects of exposure to opioids for predictable reasons, like having wisdom teeth pulled,” she said. “They are vulnerable from the standpoint of ongoing development as well as social pressures.”

Despite increased awareness about the dangers of opioids, dentists have been accused of over-prescribing painkillers as rates of opioid prescription continue to climb. In March, the American Dental Association announced new guidelines meant to limit opioid prescribing.

“As president of the ADA, I call upon dentists everywhere to double down on their efforts to prevent opioids from harming our patients and their families,” ADA President Joseph P. Crowley said in a news release. “This new policy demonstrates ADA’s firm commitment to help fight the country’s opioid epidemic while continuing to help patients manage dental pain.”

The newest study suggests that these efforts are critical.

“It will be important to find areas where we can help eliminate the exposure to opioids in this group to show long-term decrease in opioid use,” said Dr. Chad Brummett, an assistant professor of anesthesiology at the University of Michigan.

View the original article at thefix.com

11 August 2018
Could Depression Be Diagnosed By A Blood Test In The Future?

Researchers may have discovered a possible biomarker for major depressive disorder.

A blood test is in the works that may be an important new step in fighting depression.

In a new study, researchers in the U.S. and Sweden have been examining a chemical in the brain, acetyl-L-carnitine, or LAC for short, to determine if it plays a role in depression.

Natalie Rasgon, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, who is a senior author in this study, told ABC News, “Previous animal studies convincingly showed the role of LAC in models of depression. This study is the first confirmation of the results from animal studies in human subjects with depression.”

A previous study on LAC was conducted on mice and it did improve their depression symptoms. LAC could be used as a biomarker in patients, meaning a measurable chemical in the brain that shows the presence of a disease, and it could eventually be a way to screen and diagnose people with serious or treatment-resistant depression.

Newsweek reports that among the 116 people who participated in this survey, 71 had depression and 45 did not. The participants with depression had lower levels of LAC than others. For the participants with severe depression, their LAC levels were very low. This study revealed that LAC levels were lowest with women who had treatment-resistant depression, and who endured childhood trauma.

There could also eventually be supplements that could improve people’s LAC levels down the road, yet Rasgon adds, “We are at the very beginning of this discovery and can’t recommend people to buy this supplement at the GNC store… There are many questions to be answered—who will ultimately benefit from taking this supplement, what is the right dose, what is the appropriate duration of use.”

Over 300 million people live with depression worldwide, according to the World Health Organization. It is a complex mental health issue to fight. “Depressive disorders can present differently in different people,” Rasgon says. “What is known now is that depression affects not just the brain but the whole organism.”

Still, Rasgon is enthusiastic about the early results from this study. “We are working on extending them to further understand the role of LAC in patients receiving treatment for depression,” she says. “It is one of the pieces of a very large puzzle that constitutes depressive disorders as an illness.”

View the original article at thefix.com

8 August 2018
Hay Fever's Link To Mental Health Issues Examined

Researchers examined the link between hay fever and depression in adolescents for a study.

For many people, itchy eyes, sneezing and a scratchy throat are a right of passage every spring as the flowers bloom and the pollen begins to blow.

However, although it might be common, one report found that hay fever is linked to depression and anxiety in adolescents.

A review published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology looked over 25 studies of individuals with hay fever, concentrating on patients who were between the ages of 10 and 19. The review found that adolescents with hay fever had a lower quality of life than other teens, were more likely to have their sleep and routines disrupted, and have academic consequences.

“Although [hay fever is] sometimes perceived as trivial conditions, this review indicates that [the] effect on adolescent life is negative and far-reaching,” the authors wrote. “It is critical that clinicians gain a greater understanding of the unique burden of [hay fever] in adolescents to ensure they receive prompt and appropriate care and treatment to improve clinical and academic outcomes.”

“The emotional burden of hay fever can be huge for adolescents,” lead study author Dr. Michael Blaiss told Medical News Today. “Three of the studies in our review examined how adolescents are emotionally affected by hay fever […] and hay fever with eye allergies (allergic rhinoconjunctivitis). They found adolescents with hay fever had higher rates of anxiety and depression, and a lower resistance to stress. [They] also exhibited more hostility, impulsivity, and changed their minds often.”

Blaiss pointed out that adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the effects of disruption to their sleep.

“Lack of sleep or poor sleep are both huge issues for adolescents, and it can be made worse by the symptoms of hay fever with or without eye allergies,” he said. “Poor sleep can have a negative impact on school attendance, performance, and academic achievement.”

Between 15 and 38% of teens have hay fever, so understanding the social and emotional consequences is important for public health. It’s also important economically, since millions of doctors visits and sick days are caused by hay fever each year.

Researchers also pointed out that teens might have their hay fever present differently from younger children or from adults. For example, teens are more likely to say that itchy eyes or sneezing is their most pressing symptom.

However, symptoms like snoring at night and night waking are the cause for the most concern, since they can lead to sleep disruption.

View the original article at thefix.com

7 August 2018
Drinking While Breastfeeding Study Gets Pushback From Critics

One critic says the study “is so deeply misleading and irresponsible that it falls only a wood shaving short of Pinocchio’s nose.”

A study released this week suggests that drinking alcohol while breastfeeding can contribute to temporary cognitive delays in children, but critics say that the study is flawed and overreaching.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, looked at data from about 5,000 Australian children. It found that children who were breastfed and whose mothers drank while they were breastfeeding, had lower cognitive abilities at ages 6 and 7, although the difference disappeared by ages 10 and 11.

“Exposing infants to alcohol through breastmilk may cause dose-dependent reductions in their cognitive abilities,” researchers concluded. “Although the relationship is small, it may be clinically significant when mothers consume alcohol regularly or binge drink.”

The study did not examine when these mothers were drinking—whether it was during a time when more alcohol was likely to be transferred to their child via breast milk, or not.

However, some healthcare providers said that the small but significant finding should cause people to take a second look at the risk of drinking while breastfeeding, which have so far been found to be minimal.

“Previous recommendations that reveal limited alcohol consumption to be compatible with breastfeeding during critical periods of development, such as the first months of life, may need to be reconsidered in light of this combined evidence,” Dr. Lauren M. Jansson, director of pediatrics at the Center for Addiction and Pregnancy and an associate professor of pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, wrote in a commentary published with the study.

Dr. Melissa Bartick, an assistant professor of medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School, told CNN that the safest option is for nursing mothers to forego all alcohol. However, there is not much concrete information on the safety—or lack thereof—of drinking and nursing.

“I think the study is helpful, but it doesn’t definitely answer the question. The question is, how much, if any, alcohol is safe during lactation?” Bartick said. “I would advise mothers to avoid alcohol and not to use alcohol, not to use beer to try to increase their milk supply. I think that’s safe to advise.”

Writing for Forbes, healthcare reporter Tara Haelle says the study “is so deeply misleading and irresponsible that it falls only a wood shaving short of Pinocchio’s nose.”

She also pointed out that the study had many flaws.

“Here’s what the new Pediatrics study actually found: Children who have ever been breastfed and whose mothers have ‘risky drinking habits’ in general are more likely to have slightly lower cognitive scores on one reasoning test at 6-7 years old,” she wrote. “But their scores aren’t any different on a vocabulary or an early literacy/math skills test, and there’s no difference in their scores at all when they’re 10-11 years old.”

View the original article at thefix.com

3 August 2018
How Do Babies Born To Mothers With Addiction Fare Over Time?

A study explored the long-term development of babies that were born with neonatal abstinence syndrome.

Every 15 minutes, a baby is born dependent on opioids in the United States. The number of infants born with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), which causes the babies to experience withdrawal-like symptoms, has risen sharply during the opioid crisis, but researchers say that parents of children who are exposed to drugs in utero have reason to be optimistic.

“Most of these children do well, and they do within the normal range,” Dr. Stephanie Merhar, a neonatologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, told NPR.

Merhar led a study that examined the development of 87 two-year-olds who were born with NAS.

They found that about 3% of the children had a lazy eye, and some scored just below average for cognitive, language and development skills.

Overall, however, researchers found that opioids weren’t as harmful to a child’s development as other substances, including alcohol.

“It’s not like the fetal alcohol syndrome problem, where it really affects the brain,” Merhar said. “[Children with fetal alcohol syndrome] are at high risk of mental retardation and there are significant developmental delays.”

This is reassuring for parents of opioid-exposed infants, especially since mothers using medication-assisted treatment like methadone are generally encouraged to continue the treatment even once they know they are pregnant.

However, Dr. Jonathan Davis, chief of newborn medicine at Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center and chair of a Neonatal Advisory Committee for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), says that more research is needed into the long-term prognosis for babies exposed to opioids in utero. He would like to see a national registry of babies born dependent on opioids so that researchers can track their long-term outcomes.

“How are these children going to function when they get to school?” said Davis. “How are these children going to speak, socialize and interact?”

One of the most important indications for a child’s outcome can be whether their mother gets treatment for her opioid use, said Dr. Lauren Jansson, director of pediatrics center for addiction and pregnancy at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore.

“The one solid thing we can say about children who are exposed to substances prenatally is that their mothers need treatment,” said Jansson.

Amanda Williammee is one of those mothers, and she has been lucky enough to connect with a North Carolina program that allows her two-year-old daughter to be in daycare while she gets treatment and counseling. Hendrée Jones is executive director of the program, called Horizons.

Jones said that many of the mothers in the program have a history of trauma and unhealthy family structures in addition to their substance abuse. That can make it nearly impossible for them to know how to parent.

“There’s often times an unrealistic expectation by society,” she said. “They’re supposed to automatically know how ‘be good mothers’—how to be nurturing mothers. That’s like trying to teach somebody algebra when they’ve never even had addition.”

However, Jones recently led a three-year study of children exposed to opioids in utero, and said that these mothers have reason to be optimistic.

“The children through time tended to score within the normal range of the tests that we had,” Jones said.

View the original article at thefix.com

2 August 2018